AHL: Playoffs aren't a lost cause for Worcester Sharks

One good thing about missing the Calder Cup playoffs for three straight seasons is that the Sharks don't have to win it all to consider the 2013-14 season an improvement.

They just have to make the playoffs, period.

Even that is questionable, but as disappointing as the beginning of the season has been for Worcester, attaining a playoff berth is an eminently reachable goal from a mathematical standpoint.

The Sharks have 31 points in 32 games. Last year, two teams made the playoffs with 81 points. Two seasons ago — the first one under the new 76-game schedule — 83 points was the minimum for qualifying for Calder Cup play.

To reach 81, Worcester needs 50 points in 44 games. That's a .568 winning percentage, not all that much of a jump for a team that essentially has played .500 hockey to this point.

AHL history is loaded with teams that came on strong in the second half to make the playoffs and eventually sometimes win the Calder Cup.

The days of teams with regular-season records below .500 winning the cup are gone — there's no way a sub-.500 team could make the cut under the current system — but there still is wiggle room for average teams to become good enough during the second half at least to make the cut.

That happened to Worcester in 2006-07, its first year in the league. The Sharks were three games above .500 with 24 games to play, in grave danger of not making the postseason, and went 16-6-2 the rest of the way to gain the final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division.

The catalyst for that surge was pretty simple. Coach Roy Sommer installed Thomas Greiss as his No. 1 goalie and used him every night. This year's Sharks are going to need a similar catalyst.

They made some moves this week, bringing in Yanni Gourde and Tyler Gron from the ECHL, but trickle-down help is usually more effective than the "trickle-up" kind.

Maybe they will make a difference. Maybe Gron is this year's version of Andrew Desjardins, a talented player who simply slipped through the cracks and made a huge difference when finally given a chance.

More likely, Worcester will turn its season around with help from the top. If the Sharks don't make the playoffs again, it probably would have been better for them if the one night of Matt Nieto, Freddie Hamilton and Daniil Tarasov never happened. Then their fans never would have known what the possibilities were.

You'd think that, at some point, the NHL's Sharks will get healthy. Right now, it looks like they might start getting bodies back by the Olympics. But so far this year, every time someone is on the verge of getting healthy, somebody else gets hurt, and it's always a forward.

If the Olympic break is a realistic goal for a better roster in Worcester, then the Sharks have to keep from falling into too deep a hole to dig out of. Last weekend was not encouraging, but maybe the addition of Gron and Gourde will provide the spark they need, at least for a while.

Otherwise, those post-Olympic games will turn into just another spring tryout camp.

Weekend at home

The San Jose hockey operations will be in town en masse for the next few days as the team has its organizational meetings.

Worcester is home all weekend starting with a game against Hartford on Friday night.

The Sharks have not beaten the Wolf Pack at the DCU Center since 2011, but to be fair, they've only played them twice at home since then.

The homestand continues with games against Norfolk on Saturday night and Portland on Sunday afternoon.

Catching up with...

Three former Sharks are playing for Heilbronn in the German second league.

They are forwards P.J. Fenton and Brady Leisenring and defenseman Mitch Versteeg. And, yes, that was former IceCats enforcer Trevor Gillies in the transactions, being suspended in the ECHL. Gillies, 34, is on the Orlando roster.

Ex-IceCats nuisance Tyson Nash is a broadcaster for the Coyotes, short-time IceCats goaltender Mike Valley is the goalies coach for the Dallas Stars, and Chris Blight, statistically the greatest player in Sharks history, is skating for the Cardiff Devils in Great Britain. Blight was 0-2-2 and plus-2 in his only regular-season game for Worcester.

Olympians who played here

Six former Worcester AHLers are on the various Olympic rosters. That list includes ex-Sharks Joe Pavelski (USA), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (Canada) and Sandis Ozolinsh (Latvia) as well as IceCats alums Michal Handzus (Slovakia), Arvid Rekis (Latvia) and Tomas Razinger (Slovenia). … Didn't know this, but Canadian Olympic goaltender Carey Price is related to former IceCats prospect Brett Scheffelmaier. … For that matter, occasional Worcester teammates Matt Nieto and Dylan DeMelo are not related to each other, but sure look like they are. … Again, the Sharks were shut out in the Player of the Week department, but again they helped create one. This week's pick is goalie Cal Heeter, who beat Worcester, 2-1, in Glens Falls on Dec. 31. Actually, the Sharks did well relatively speaking. Marek Viedensky's goal up there was the only one Heeter allowed all week. He went 3-0-0 and stopped 86 of 87 shots. … Congratulations to Mark Mancari of the Chicago Wolves for reaching the 500-point mark for his AHL career. This is probably an exaggeration, but about 495 of those seemed to have been scored against the Sharks when Mancari was playing for the Portland Pirates. … They have played 584 games since coming to Worcester, and the Sharks have been outscored by exactly 100 goals, 1,704 to 1,604. … The Providence Bruins have become the new Wolf Pack for the Sharks. The Bruins have won 10 of the last 11 games between the teams. Worcester's record during the slump is 1-7-3. … Eriah Hayes made his NHL debut for San Jose on Sunday night. That makes it 33 players who have played their first NHL game after skating here for the Sharks. … St. John's played in front of its 91st straight sellout at Mile One Centre on Monday night. That broke Wilkes-Barre's record of 90 consecutive capacity crowds, set from 2002 to 2004. … Good luck to ex-IceCats Scott Pellerin and Eric Boguniecki coaching in Bridgeport.Since Ryan Strome was recalled by the Islanders, the Sound Tigers are 4-9-0. … Give the Sharks credit for how they handle the Three Stars selections at the DCU Center. They try really hard to be fair, unlike some cities. For instance, Syracuse beat Binghamton in overtime, 6-5, on Jan. 4 in Syracuse, and all three stars went to Crunch players, even though two Senators had two goals, and Mike Hoffman had three assists. … The Chicago Wolves have scored exactly four goals in five of their last six games. The Sharks have scored four or more goals in three of their 32 games this season.

On this date

The IceCats recorded the first overtime victory in the city's AHL history when Cal McGowan flipped a backhand rebound past Daniel Berthiaume in a 5-4 decision over the Providence Bruins at the DCU Center in 1995. The goal, before a crowd of 7,746, capped a big Worcester comeback. The IceCats trailed after one period, 3-0, then tied it in the second as Wayne Cowley took over in net from starting goalie Les Kuntar.

Roy Mitchell, John Carter, Denis Chalifoux and Terry Virtue had the other IceCats goals.